Friday, July 29, 2011

I just completed a new, free web application for patent family information. It is called Family-izer(TM) Solo. My original Family-izer gave only the country code, publication number and kind code. The Solo version gives you a table with additional information like the full country name, publication date, application number, and a description of the kind code.

Also unlike the original Family-izer, the Solo version does not require a browser plugin. You can use it from any modern web browser, regardless of the underlying device. It should work on any computer, tablet device or smart phone. So if you find yourself without a computer and need patent family info, just pull out your smart phone, open its web browser and head to the Family-izer Solo page!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Patent Grabber 5.9 can now be downloaded directly from the Patent Tools page of the Blazing Dawn Software web site. At the request of a UK venture capital company, this new version allows users to create an enhanced spreadsheet of bibliographic information for U.S. patents. In addition to the information on the face of the patent, the "US Patent Biblio +" function additionally contains for each patent in your list:

1) the corresponding foreign patents from INPADOC,

2) the legal status of the patent from INPADOC,

3) full description of the main class of the patent,

4) the assignees of the cited patents,

5) the count of cited patents,

6) a list of later-issued patents that cite the patent ("forward citations"),

7) the count of forward citations (in case you are interested in that statistic) and

8) the assignees of the forward citations

This function is free to use for lists of up to 20 patents. Usage with lists of >20 patents requires a Patent Grabber license (which is quite inexpensive at $30).

Version 5.9 additionally fixes EPO and PCT searching that had been broken by changes in the EPO and WIPO search systems. EPO searching is no longer limited to the first 30 hits.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

WIPO has extensively changed its search interface. That as broken Patent Grabber's ability to download the text of PCT applications and to search for PCT applications. Patent Grabber's ability to download PCT applications in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format is NOT effected.